Questions about species in decline:
What’s the difference between endangered and threatened?
Endangered = any species that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a
significant portion of its range.
Threatened = any species that is likely to become an endangered species within the
foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
In simple terms:
Endangered species are at the brink of extinction now.
Threatened species are likely to be at the brink in the near future.
How many federally endangered and threatened species are found in the area
where the Navy plans to conduct electronic warfare training? 22. The list is
here.
What is a species of concern? It’s an informal term for to those species believed to
be in need of concentrated conservation actions. Such conservation actions vary
depending on the health of the species populations and degree and types of threats.
Is the number of species of concern in our area increasing? Yes. Between 2002
and 2013 the number of species of concern in the Salish Sea watershed nearly
doubled, to 119 species. Read about it here.
Read the entire list here.
Who else tracks declining species? States do. Many conservation organizations
do. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources) maintains a “Red List.” You can learn about that here:
http://www.iucnredlist.org
This list is about federally-listed species. Can the same ones or different
species also be State-listed? Yes. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
maintains a web site of State-listed, Proposed, Candidate, and Species of Concern.
How did the Navy arrive at a Finding of No Significant Impact in its September
2014 Environmental Assessment? By using a Biological Opinion from the US Fish
and Wildlife Service that was prepared in 2009-2010, for a different Navy
document. The practice is questionable.
Have any species been listed since the 2010 Biological Opinion? Yes, Taylor’s
checkerspot )a butterfly,) and three species of rockfish. Rockfish comprise at least
28 of the more than 200 species of fish in the Salish Sea. NOAA listed Puget Sound
yelloweye, canary rockfish and bocaccio under the Endangered Species Act, in 2010.
The State of Washington listed several additional species as species of concern.
Are any species proposed for listing as of early 2015? Yes, the West Coast
population of fisher.